A Moment In Time
by Stardust Ray
Summary: OneShot Collection housing all the characters you love, one step at a time. NonAU Keep in mind that these unofficial events take place after the game's end. Contains Various Genres, Characters thus far: Laguna, Squall, Seifer, Ellone-
1. We Needn't Say

_This is the start to a collection of One-Shots that I find myself writing time after time. At the moment, I am inactive with the progress of my other stories and have decided to go ahead with these out of pure entertainment. Feel free to leave a message if these short stories intrigue you, as they are most likely the closest I will ever come to writing in continuation from the game's end. I usually write Alternate Universes, but then there are some things that take place directly in the game that I'd like to address. That's all._

_**A Moment in Time AKA Midnight Munchies (hehehe)**_

* * *

_**We Needn't Say…**_

* * *

Laguna felt it: the notorious nudge at the back of his calf. It would cause his leg to cramp again if the evening continued the way it had.

He was seated across from his guest at a dinner table center to a large dining room of the spacious Esthar Presidential Palace. Glorious angel statues and ornaments of marble stone paved the walls and floors of the room, where a golden chandelier dangled at its ceiling flaunting diamonded jewels that hang from each of the light pillars, but even _its _glamorous glow would not be enough to spark an interest between the two men.

The president of Esthar and the now legendary SeeD of Balamb Garden, father and son, were together finally, sharing a rather quiet brunch _despite_ their esteemed titles. There was utter silence, except for the scraping of his fork as he mixed the colorful, baked vegetables upon his plate into a rainbow of produce. Across from him, the SeeD's fork dropped piercingly onto a plate of veggies segmented by color, causing the older man to stop his fidgeting with an immediate fright.

Meshing his food together had been a silent escape as he pondered about the lifestyle of his newfound son. After all, who _was_ the young man sitting across from him? How could he believe they shared the same blood? How could he even begin to understand him?

They were total strangers _and_ total opposites.

He had always believed the pen was mightier than the sword, yet his son's gunblade was mightier than words. He had led a life _avoiding _combat as his son's career _revolved_ around it. He believed his words were always full of passion, yet the actions of his son spoke louder than words.

Laguna stared at Squall, whose eyes were focused intently at his plate with his face resting upon his palm, his mind apparently travelling a mile a minute, and took note of the same brown hair, this boy and Raine's, and the same nose and mouth even; yet the longer he observed their similarities, Laguna realized he wouldn't necessarily take on any of his nor Raine's personality. He would most likely never establish a fatherly relationship with him either.

Looking upon the younger brunet, he winced in sorrow. They seemed to have _nothing_ in common. He would've _liked_ to strike up a conversation, but as many times before, Squall's replies never exceeded more than _three_ words.

How could a man of many words end up with a son whom had none to spare? He was talkative, Squall was taciturn; it was a direct citation from the irony of nature. On such premises, Laguna turned his attention to the past, wondering if he had somehow been present in the teenager's life sooner, would there have been a significant difference in his personality as opposed to present day.

Even more, could it have all been avoided, Squall growing up in an orphanage? Could he have found him sooner, especially after having learned that the young man had spent his childhood at the same orphanage that Ellone had been taken to at such an early age?

Laguna had missed out on so much. Maybe if he'd stayed with Raine a little longer, he would've gotten to know his son more, but then seeing his son's birth would mean losing Ellone, a child who wasn't even his own. She was so cute. He could never forgive himself if the girl had been stolen away from him permanently. He remembered swearing he would find her, bringing her back home so that he, Raine, and Ellone would live together as one family.

Maybe he could go into the past, make a change, head directly to Esthar to find Ellone quickly and head back to Winhill to see the birth of his son: but what of Esthar? Would Adel still reign as ruler, conqueror of all nations? She would continue to wreak havoc to the world _and_ Esthar, and continuously stir fear in the people's hearts, driving the world into a pit of nothingness with her sorcery.

Not in _his_ time.

Finding and returning Ellone would only be step one, and step two would mean defeating Adel, freezing her and holding her captive in space. He would hire a team of loyal subjects to guard her tomb warily, so that she could never escape again. But capturing Adel had happened by chance, there was no way he could be granted the same blessing by a second star in time. Could the powerful sorceress fall for such a childish trick once more? Being lured into a room where a holographic replica of Ellone appeared standing before her where she, at the exact moment, was pushed into a chamber of imprisonment and sealed by Laguna and his faithful comrades.

So he would need _time_ to set things right, but that time would be costly. _How_ costly? Raine's _life…_

Even if he could go back and set things right, he knew he would never make it in time to be at her side when she needed him most. He had wanted to push everything aside and run back to her, but it was inevitable. He was a leader, a born charismatic leader, and people would undoubtedly follow him wherever he went.

Laguna was a man of passion and had always listened to his own heart.

It was his heart that led him to search for and find Ellone, to love her as his own daughter, to meet so many valuable allies along the way, to defeat Adel, and to realize his importance among a city of those in desperate need of a leader. He had lived his life doing what was right, lived his life for a cause, and in the end, it cost him his one and only love, Raine. But even so, he continued to fight with his heart leading the way. He fought so hard that he eventually met the young man sitting across from him now, and soon realized there was a passion of truth burning deep behind the sternness of his approach, a strong spirit that exacted _hers_. Behind those cold blue eyes, he sensed a shared fire that eventually saved the world from a second death.

The young man sitting across from him had lead a group, an organization much like his own, to overthrow and defeat a sorceress. It was by his courage and dedication that the world had been saved from an even greater fate than death, eternal silence and stillness of time. In such a case, the only way to bargain freedom would be to depend upon weapons and combat. Squall's gunblade _became_ his pen and his might _was_ his word.

Within that moment, Laguna smiled at the young man sitting across from him, realizing that he was no different than himself so many years ago at heart. Squall was his son, he and Raine's son after all, and it was then that Laguna found one other common trait to which they both shared…

The room had been quiet as both of their minds busied amidst an array of thoughts travelling miles per minute, hoping to find some connection with the other. There were things understood that needn't worth mentioning, so in the silence of time, Laguna found himself sitting, relaxed, enjoying a quiet brunch with Squall. And Squall, reclaiming the fork from his plate once more, looked upon the older man earnestly and displayed a faint smile of his own.

Gradually, the cramp in his leg ceased to exist.


	2. The Way I See It

"The way I see it… As long as you make it out of your battle alive, you're one step closer to fulfilling your dream."

_ --Seifer_

* * *

_**The Way I See It**_

* * *

The seagulls took to the shores of the harbor town Balamb, flying above the open waters with their delirious laughter, their voices echoing about the waves and calmness of the sea. The blue of the horizon was endless, stretching forth to meet the end of the sky and the beginning of the ocean.

Gazing at the sea from the tip of the docking bridge stood a tall blond. He was contemplating the meaning of his life. He had reached his goal, his dream, becoming a sorceress' knight and having an entire army under his command. Although he had sided with the _sorceress_ the only known enemy of garden, to achieve this dream, he was satisfied at having tasted a mere fragment of his lifelong obsession; however, now that the dream had ended, he had started to wonder if it were ever truly _his_ to begin with.

A dream may have not been permanent, but it was something a person could hang onto, sprouting from his youth and remaining with that person for a lifetime, sometimes even inspiring others to do the same. A dream was something that _sometimes_ came true. Those lucky enough to experience their dreams more often _became_ that dream, holding on to it forever. Seifer Almasy had certainly been lucky enough to become his dream, and it was his to claim, his title, and the world would know him by his works as such. But was it supposed to end so soon?

The blond recalled his dream to become a sorceress' knight…

When had he first begun to dream of becoming a sorceress' knight? It was probably some fairytale from his childhood, or maybe even a movie he remembered seeing back at the orphanage when he was younger.

He remembered like it was yesterday. Some delivery men had barged through the front door dropping boxes of donated goods on the floors of the orphanage for the children to cut open and dig through. Matron emerged from the kitchen wiping her hands on a towel, smiling warmly at the deliverymen. One of the two motioned his right hand to the top of his hat to salute the then younger matron and all the children who had gathered around to examine the cargo. After the men had left, she quieted the children down and gathered the boxes from the floor where they brought them to the dining room table for closer examination. Inside the boxes, the children found pieces of clothing, toys, books, and canned food, and then there was one more thing. Matron dug deeper into the box and uncovered a video tape labeled, 'The Sorceress' Knight.' She smiled almost immediately.

Later on that day, she decided to play the movie for the kids as a treat. The orphans had all gathered around to see it. All of their eyes were glued to the television screen, especially his green orbs, and if there was ever a time when Seifer had gone completely quiet, it was when watching the progression of the Sorceress' Knight. Afterwards, he remembered during playtime that the games had been turned into reenactments from the movie, in which he had become the sorceress' knight after dueling out with the other boys for the main role, and some brave little girl would become his sorceress. He would pretend to protect her, up until the evil monsters appeared and they would lose the role play to violent battles amongst the sandy beach of the stone orphanage.

He remembered the kids continued to play the sorceress' knight for an entire week, up until one of the older girls went missing, one whose role was significant among them all, often holding the other children together like glue while protecting another little boy as if he were her younger brother. With her disappearance, the children's wills to play seemed to demolish and he often found himself growing lonely, standing at the tip of the ocean sinking rocks into the water—then one day that became boring too. Not long after, he found that by tormenting a toy truck of little Zell, he had gotten the boy to agree to play with him. Day after day, he found that by taking a cherished item of the other kids and threatening to destroy it, he could get them to keep him company. Soon after, he had regularly begun to bully the kids into becoming his playmates for the day.

He could boss them all except for Squall. Squall had learned to ignore him, and when Seifer grew tired of being ignored, he would throw his fist at the brunet's face and ultimately start a fight between them that would last until he was standing where he was today.

"Yo Seifer, you ready to go?" Raijin called out to the young man who had been lost in thought; quite unusual behavior for the normally hotheaded egoistic blond. "We've been here all day long. Kinda getting tired of seeing this place, ya know?"

"Exhausted…" Fujin stated firmly, her voice lacking its usual assertiveness. He could tell she was probably feeling tired as well.

Seifer turned to his loyal posse and grinned, "You guys go on ahead. I'll catch up."

"You don't have to tell _me_ twice, ya know?" The muscular man laughed, turning around from Seifer and heading back into Balamb. Fujin lingered for a moment before grinning as well and then followed her companion to town. He watched their figures disappear at the corner of the hotel, realizing they were headed to the house of the kind woman who allowed Raijin to use her stove top to cook fish, given the fish he caught that day weren't bad like the fish he cooked there before.

As he watched his friends leave him behind, one thought crossed his mind. He was sure to never find good fried fish again should Raijin ever leave his side. He hated that Raijin was talented at fishing, but he never turned down any of the fried fish that would follow their daylong fishing adventures.

"If you wanna catch a fish, you gotta have patience, ya know?" he remembered Raijin explaining earlier that day. "Great patience takes time to acquire, so don't expect to catch one right now, ya know?" The brunet grinned and held his index up high, "Fishing is the perfect way to practice patience, ya know!"

Seifer grinned again and faced the sea, remembering his remark to Raijin's lecture: "Yeah and you gotta have a _helluva_ lot of patience to listen to that _'you know'_ crap." He and Fujin's laughter combined had scared away the seagulls that were circling them in the sky, but at the end of the day when their fishing buckets were put to the test, Raijin's was the fullest, his being the only bucket with any fish collected.

"Ya know!!" Raijin had cheered, despite his wet clothing from a dip in the water from when Fujin kicked him inside to help Seifer's ego, causing the blond to laugh for a little while. Raijin seemed to not mind though, although he was a little upset at Fujin for shoving him inside so unexpectedly. Still, they were his friends. Raijin could never come against them angrily just as Seifer could not do to him or Fujin, even being under the spell of a sorceress, a spell that had surely put him at the height of his romantic dream. He had become the Sorceress' Knight, her loyal dutiful servant.

Although he hadn't seen the original movie in years, he still remembered how his heart raced upon watching it for the first time. He sat on the floor, closest to the television set, studying the every move of the gunblade specialist onscreen till every twist and slice was etched into his memory. The stance, the pose, even the battle maneuverability was captured inside of his mind, so what else did need to do to keep it all intact. He practiced, of course. Taking a long wooden stick from the garbage behind the orphanage, he had found his gunblade, his weapon. He dug his sneakers into to the sand, readying his stance, and bounced from left to right on the back of his heel. He extended his stick turned gunblade and sliced through the air with the back of his right hand. From that moment on, he was determined to become the next sorceress' knight, the _greatest_ sorceress protector on the face of the earth; unbeknownst to him, he had submitted his soul duty to stand against the forces that would rise up to erase that sorceress from his world, and he would be her only protector.

It may have seemed like a grand adventure for any child to imagine, but the reality settled in, and when faced with danger of the opposing force on several occasions, he had greatly failed and displeased his sorceress. Whether it was a dream short lived or a dream that had failed was indistinguishable. He made a horrible Sorceress' Knight. The only person who could actually carry such a heavy burden and succeed would be the same person who knew when and how to ignore him, to challenge him, and to beat him at his own game, Squall Leonhart. Some weeks ago maybe, it would have killed him to admit his defeat to Squall, but after enduring such a perilous adventure as actually trying to fill those shoes, Seifer realized maybe he really didn't have what it took to be a Sorceress' Knight, let alone a SeeD. He lacked patience, commitment…he ran on passion, but not enough discipline to endure in a constant struggle as a servant and commander.

Ironic that he was head of the disciplinary committee yet he hadn't held a lick of discipline in his own blood. He thrived on telling others what to do, yet never actually followed the rules for himself. Perhaps Raijin was right about him, maybe he needed to practice having more patience?

His mind wandered back to the orphanage, those long hot days on the beach when time seemed to stop and it seemed as though Matron would never walk out into the sand to call the children back inside for supper. One woman to so many kids, it was a wonder they all turned out normal, that is, if growing up and submitting to an army lifestyle was normal at all. It was probably because of the time they lived in as children; most of their parents had been killed by the war, sending most of the kids into anger and wanting revenge. And then the Garden system began and drafted more and more kids inside to help fight against the sorceress' attacks. It was a force created to stop a rising threat, a threat that demolished the lives of people who had rather live in peace, people who wanted to protect their kids from sharing the very fate that was bestowed upon him.

He placed his hands on his hips and turned his eyes down to the ocean waves as they poured in wistfully.

Suddenly like a salt crystal being carried to the shore, a thought came to his mind. When he had revisited the orphanage while as the Sorceress' Knight, he realized how broken and small the place was. As a child, the land was spacious, pure and sweet, smelling of salt and sugar at once, but as an adult, he realized how dull the ocean was, where the water looked black and smelled swampy, losing its appeal in every way. As the Sorceress' Knight, he couldn't recall the dreams he had had as a child walking those shores, but when he was released from the curse, he remembered practicing to become the Sorceress' Knight that he later became: a dream of fulfilling a dream.

The orphanage was the only place he had ever truly been himself, the Seifer that no one had ever met, the Seifer that was so full of talent he hadn't feared losing a bout with any of the older kids. He was and had always been driven to be the best, to ultimately find the role of the sorceress' knight, but at the end of the day, he didn't have any friends. So the orphanage and matron would comfort him, even if it was temporary, a simple hug or a kiss on the forehead, it meant the world to him to have at least some comfort in his youth. He realized the orphanage had meant more to him than just a place he grew up in, and seeing it for the second time in his life had made him wonder what he could do now. It was a place where he had found his dream, and it was the place he had lost that same dream as well… Still, he would continue to hold onto it, it would be the only thing to comfort him for now.

He turned away from the ocean as the sun began its plunge behind the clouds, and the orange of the sunset filled the sky where the seagulls had long ceased their circling. The air was silent, but the ocean still astir. Seifer followed behind in his friend's tracks, hoping he hadn't missed out on Raijin's famous fried fish.

He left behind the memories of his past at sea that day, but he would never forget them. Those memories were his battles, his struggles for survival. Finding closure and comfort from them meant becoming stronger and surviving another day in his life, becoming closer to his lifelong dream. Perhaps it was possible to have more than one dream?

"…Guess I'll keep fighting to find that dream again," he muttered into the ever changing wind.


	3. Sis

_There's something tranquil about the sounds of the wind and ocean at the orphanage ... Something familiar, and yet so far away... I don't know why the others chose this place, but for me...everything begins with her... _

* * *

**_Sis_**

* * *

"Squall! _Squall_, grab my hand!" She told the little boy as her foot sank deeper into the wet sand. The rush of the ocean had quickly washed away the impressions left by her feet. The waves growled ferociously behind her as the wind howled, causing her short wet hair to stick to her cheeks. "Take it Squall, don't be afraid!" The girl raised her hand in line with his blue eyes as she yelled above the blaring sound of the ocean water crashing against its own surface. She had hoped to stir up the courage in his heart, but the boy stood on the edge of a stoic boulder that was planted into the beach floor and had overcome the rising water. It was his safe haven from the wild tides of the sea. He wouldn't dare to leave the comfort of his cocoon. "Please?" She begged him, only to receive a fierce head gesture from side to side as his answer. His lips were pressed down together and his eyes closed tight. Squall's decision was final: he would _never _jump from that boulder.

"Squall, open your eyes…" She spoke as soft as a whisper. Even _he_ could admit that her voice was soft, sweet and soothing."You have to trust me," the girl spoke firmly, stepping closer to him and holding out her hand again. "I won't let you drown..."

The boy's eyes peeled open at the sound of her angelic promise. All of his present fears melted into thin air as he found himself swayed into reaching out for her hand. He knew to always trust her gentleness especially in frightful situations. No one, not even the Matron understood his fear as well as Ellone had. She was like his older sister; the only family he would ever have since his birth, and the only one who had been with him since before he could remember. They were orphaned, marooned in a shelter with other children whom had all lost their parents to the wrath of the Sorceress War. At an age so tender, the tides of war hadn't concerned him. Living on a peninsula in the middle of nowhere, it was easy to believe that the outside world lived in harmony or that the sun rose and set purposely for him and the others like Ellone. They had all shared his utopia. If there was one thing he knew about his life, it was that he could always trust Ellone.

He loved her so much without the need to say so. Trusting her was like breathing air, it came to him naturally.

There, standing at the edge of the stone, his eyes found her gentle brown orbs smiling upon his shyness. "Don't be afraid, Squall…" She stated again. "Give me your hand."

"…Okay," he muttered unsurely in a small, shaky voice. With a solid breath taken, Squall reached for her hand slowly.

She reached out both of her arms as he dipped his foot into the water first. Tightening his grip on her hand, he bit his bottom lip and dove into the water. A big wave followed and splashed Ellone off her own feet momentarily. She closed her eyes while holding onto his hand as the water took them and slowly placed them back into the bed of sand beneath them. Squall was now standing on his own feet, the water riding up to his chest and going no further. His dark russet hair was soaked and his eyes were closed to shut out the water, but Ellone noticed the smile upon his face.

It was brighter than the sun.

"Wasn't that fun?" She laughed, easing her hand out of his grip so he would come to realize he was standing on his own.

He nodded his head slowly with an ever growing smile. Ellone brought her hand to the top of his head. She was taller than him at the most, and the water merely encircled her waist, even so she was like a goddess in his childish eyes.

"Sometimes all you need to do is trust me and let go, then you'll have loads of fun Squall," her sisterly words were all the boy needed to hear. He then giggled lightly and splashed her with water, igniting a series of more splashes between them for the remainder of that evening.

They were inseparable, he and Ellone, even at night so it seemed.

Oftentimes the boy would wake up in the middle of the night and rush from the boys' room to sneak across the hall and into the girls' room, if only just to share a bed with his sister. She would wake up half an hour early before the rest of the kids to quickly send him back to his designated room to evade the Matron's consequences. They were well behaved kids, and almost never needed correcting, but Ellone would not abandon her brother in the middle of the night. She knew of his troubles. He often had nightmares concerning unseen things coming to snatch him from his bed, curiously a mixture of spooky campfire stories the older kids would sometimes tell and the fears of his unknown parents' untold deaths. Each night these ideas had sprawled his young mind into a fright. Ellone had done her best as his "sister" to ensure that her little brother was properly cared for, dedicating her time day after day to him more than the other smaller children. She was five years older than him and most of the other kids at the orphanage and had often governed their every move, playing as second in command to their lovable matron who had looked after all of the children with love and tender care.

Things, it seemed, couldn't get any better for the children who had grown attached to their remote home on the forgotten peninsula, until one restless night when the blurry image of what he believed was a fair young woman seen in his dream became a reality. She stared at him from a void corner across the room. Although her aura was peaceful, Squall was frightened beyond words. He hid underneath his covers as any scared child would do until she was gone. The next time he lifted his blanket, she was nowhere to be found.

After a moment of observing the area, the boy swallowed his breath hard. He had to tell Sis what had happened right away, she would know what to say to make his heartbeat normal again. Squall braved his imagination and teetered out of his bed. He ventured to his sister's room directly across the hall, and opened the tall door slowly. He hated that it was old and had always creaked even when one just tipped on it ever so lightly.

The moment he opened the door, there was the sound of soft snoring flowing out of the room. His azure eyes scanned each bed closely to be sure that all of the other girls were sound asleep. It would be a waste to make it all the way there only to be caught by a girl who was also having trouble sleeping. After another swift observation, he felt that it was safe to move forward into the room. Squall entered slowly, making sure to close the door behind so that the Matron would not suspect anything was happening at the moment.

Being only moments away of curling up at the end of Ellone's bed, excitement got the better of him and the boy trotted his happy body toward his sister's bed. Ellone's bed was in between two other girls on the right side of the room. The other beds were lined up on the wall adjacent to hers. He looked forward to sleeping under her watchful eyes. It was a guaranteed night of perfect peace and rest However, when getting closer to Ellone's bed, he realized something was dreadfully wrong.

"_Sis…"_ He muttered into the warm air of the room, his eyes growing ever wider and fuller at the realization that her bed was empty.

_Elle's_ bed was empty.

The mattress lay open, exposed to the suddenly cold air of the night. Her usual warm and comfortable sheets and blankets were ripped away and cold. The emptiness in the air presumed as all the other girls lay snuggly and cozy in their own beds, all except for Ellone. Where had she gone to? Why was she not there?

He looked about the room hoping that she would return. Maybe she had left for a drink of water or made a trip to the restroom? The thoughts of his fragile mind continued to play scenario after scenario about Ellone's current whereabouts but never anything that his heart would secretly not want to believe, like being adopted. The child sauntered closer to her bed, taking a seat at its edge. His little hand rested back against a small crevice inside the mattress that had probably been imprinted by one of Ellone's feet from sometime that night. He smiled. It was warm like her, maybe she hadn't been so far away from him after all. The boy waited in higher hopes for another five minutes. He waited up until another five minutes passed after that.

But no one had returned to the room.

He rose from the mattress slowly, wiping his tired eyes. If he had stayed there any longer, he would've been certain to fall asleep, but he could not sleep until Sis had made her return to her own bed. At that thought, he wondered if something had happened to her. There was a feeling in his soul which had not felt right since discovering Ellone's empty bed. Somehow he knew that Ellone would not be coming back to the room that night or any night to follow.

It was up to _him_ to find her.

Making his way out into the hall, he heard the front door slam shut. Moments later, he heard the tires of a car peeling away from the property surging his heart from his chest. The front door opened with a jolt as if it had gotten stuck to its hinges and he watched as the matron entered the orphanage's hall with glistening eyes and reddened cheeks. She looked as though she had just witnessed something horrible, something unspeakable, and possibly something to do with Ellone's disappearance. Within a matter of seconds, he only then concluded in his own mind that Ellone would not be returning to him for reasons unknown. She had left him behind for good.

"Squall, what are you doing up at this hour?" Matron's voice ripped through his thoughts, tossing her evening shawl over her shoulder and making her way toward the young boy with haste. He immediately straightened his back, but looked down at the floor quietly. Edea knew how shy little Squall was about what was on his mind, especially when it came to having trouble sleeping. He never said a word to her, only to Ellone, but Edea knew of the children's endeavoring night after night.

"Can you sleep?" Edea asked the child.

He shook his head from side to side.

"Another nightmare?" The concern in her voice drew him in closer, and she kneeled down before the boy to look into his eyes, encouraging him to confess what was on his mind. Placing her right hand to his chin, she lifted his face so that his eyes could meet hers. "Is that what it was?"

He shook his head again. Sure, his first thought was to get out of the boy's room so he could sleep beside Ellone because her bed was softer than his for some reason, but seeing as his sister was nowhere to be found, his reasons had changed considerably. "…Where is sis?" His voice was soft and gentle, beckoning truth rather than lies which were all she could conjure up for the little boy at the moment. He would be too young to understand, too young to accept what had happened to his sister. She felt it only fitting to tell him what any matron would say to a young orphan with no place to go.

"…Ellone has a new family now. They'll take care of her from now on." She lied, watching as his little blue eyes had started to water at her words, words she knew he had already expected to hear.

"But…But she promised," He muttered. "…She said she wouldn't let them take her unless they took me too..."

The sister and brother had made a promise. They promised each other long ago that if either of them were to be adopted, they would force the parents –to-be to adopt the both of them to ensure they were never separated. It was Ellone's plan, and everything that Ellone came up with never failed. It had to have worked, he trusted her words. Their words were written in blood in Squall's heart and he would never forget Ellone's promise, nor would he allow it to be broken.

"I'm sorry dear…this family…they…" Matron sighed, trying to find the right words. "Ellone's gone, my dear."

"No…" He stepped back shaking his head from side to side, unable to bear the news. "…No! Elle said she wouldn't let them take her! She promised we would go together!"

"Squall…" She began, but the young boy ripped from her arms and ran back into his room. He startled some of the other boys who had fallen asleep only hours into the night.

Matron entered the room behind him and settled the other boys down, assuring them that all was fine and that they could go back to sleep. When she reached Squall's bed which was the last bed at the back of the room, she sat down at his side and pulled him into her lap. He had resisted at first, but soon found himself falling under the spell of her comfort and had finally settled down enough to a state where he could possibly fall asleep. Matron frowned at the dried tears at the corners of his eyes. She hated to see any of her children in tears. Such a site was heartbreaking for the woman who had wanted only to see that her children were raised well whether by her hands or the hands of those who adopted them. She especially looked out for Squall, as gentle as his little soul had always been.

"Squall…you have to be strong for her. Ellone wouldn't want you to cry, she would want you to be a big boy. She'd want you to be able to take care of yourself so that someday, you'll see her again. I know it's hard right now honey, but you'll both be okay. Someday you'll understand."

Matron eased his little body underneath the covers and headed for the door. Hopefully he would recover from losing his sister and hopefully, she prayed, he would learn to live on as if the girl would never return. As things stood because of the Ellone's mysterious power, the Matron Edea could not say she doubted that Squall would ever see his sister again. Deep down in her soul she knew that all the children under her care would exact roles beyond their years, and it was by fate that she had received both the girl and boy who she would also _lose_ to fate for a time.

Over the next few days, Squall had begun to adopt her words, even managing to promise to take care of himself so that he would meet up with his Sis again. He would do what it took to remain strong enough to be able to survive alone. Admiring his strong young heart, Matron continued to encourage the boy's mighty resolve.

Days later when a ship that Ellone was onboard had officially set sail, a stranger arrived at the walkway of the orphanage. The stranger was clothed in a black jacket with midnight pants and coal boots to complement its dark shade. Stylish belts hang lowly on his hips and thighs, and there were smaller belts fastened around his lower right thigh. The collar of his jacket was lined in a furry trim which had swayed against the soft winds that whirled about the premise. It was naturally windy because the orphanage's base was located on the shore itself. There was a pendant against his white t-shirt, a silver pendant in the shape of a beast known for its power, strength and pride.

As this stranger entered, he saw a little boy running far away from the shelter in haste. Not long after the boy emerged from the orphanage, a familiar woman followed in the boy's steps, stopping just as the stranger appeared in her sight.

Matron paused, perhaps he had seen which direction little Squall had run, "Did you see a little boy just now?"

The man laughed underneath his breath, shaking his head slowly as he gestured his right hand into the air, "You don't have to worry…the boy won't go anywhere."

_I remember now…_The Stranger took a moment to himself. _This was the day that I realized Ellone wasn't coming back, and the same day that I pushed everything aside later on. I concentrated solely on me. I was fed up with disappointments, tired of waiting in the window day after day until Ellone's impossible return. Sometimes I wonder if I would've turned out differently had Ellone never left. Probably so… I probably wouldn't have become as strong as I am now without her leaving. Now that I think about it, I wouldn't have gone to Garden and I wouldn't have become a SeeD. I wouldn't have gone through most of my life relying on myself only. I wouldn't have reunited with the others nor would I have met Rinoa. I wouldn't have helped to rid Matron of Sorceress Ultimecia's possession and later defeat her thus changing the tides of a war beyond our existence. I wouldn't have been able to stop Rinoa from being frozen in space. I wouldn't have fallen in love with her. _

After a moment of thought, the teenager shrugged his shoulders. Ellone's early words had returned to him all at once: _"Sometimes all you need to do is trust me and let go, then you'll have loads of fun Squall."_

It was indeed what he recalled doing that very day he ran away from Edea in search of his sister.

Staring at the face of the wild, the young Squall decided to let go of Ellone's memory. There would be no use of wishing for a peace that would never come to pass. In one breath, he released the hold of Ellone's hand.

Though his life had not been perfection, because of all the things he had endured and the people he had met till now, it damn well neared it and he wouldn't trade all those lonely days without his Sis for the world. In the end, Ellone had always been with him, even when he had forgotten her. She was always there to hold his hand, and he didn't need to see the past to know that he was missed too.


End file.
